Monuments to Eisenhower and other presidents

March 19, 2013

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Congress approved construction of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial on the south bank of Washington's Tidal Basin in June 1934. Architect John Russell Pope used Thomas Jefferson's own architectural tastes to design the Jefferson Memorial, which is modeled after Rome's Pantheon.

The location drew criticism because it displaced Japanese flowering cherry trees. The Commission of Fine Arts objected that the Pantheon design would compete with the Lincoln Memorial. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his permission to proceed and laid the cornerstone in 1939.

George Skadding/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image

24of38

Congress approved construction of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial on the south bank of Washington's Tidal Basin in June 1934. Architect John Russell Pope used Thomas Jefferson's own architectural tastes to design the Jefferson Memorial, which is modeled after Rome's Pantheon.

The location drew criticism because it displaced Japanese flowering cherry trees. The Commission of Fine Arts objected that the Pantheon design would compete with the Lincoln Memorial. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his permission to proceed and laid the cornerstone in 1939.